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The First Writing, a Drawing Invitational Exhibition
Rock Creek Helzer Gallery

Michael Southern, Figure in Landscape, 2017, Charcoal, gesso, and ink on paper, 7 x 7�
- Exhibition on view: October 8 – November 1, 2018
- Opening reception: Wednesday, October 31, from 12-1pm
The Helzer Gallery at С»ÆÃ¨´«Ã½â€™s Rock Creek campus is pleased to present The First Writing. This show is a comprehensive exhibition of drawings curated by С»ÆÃ¨´«Ã½ Art Instructor Mark Andres.
The statement by Marjane Satrapi, “The first writing by the human being was drawing,� inspired Curator Mark Andres to conceive of The First Writing exhibition. It was Andres’ intention to bring together a diverse group of artists for whom “drawing remains a primal means of communication: one parallel to written language, but a preverbal one which ties these artists to the ancestral caves and to the mysteries of looking before the world was named.�
The artists invited to show their work in The First Writing are a range of local artists, С»ÆÃ¨´«Ã½ instructors, and artists from throughout the world. They are united by a “common love of drawing,â€� and “share common desire to communicate not with words, numbers, bits or photos, but with objects made directly by human hands,â€� according to Andres.
Participating artists include
- Charles J. Andres
- Jane Andres
- Mark Andres
- Thomas Barron
- Amy Bay
- Carol Beckerman
- Richey Bellinger
- Jason Berger
- Ben Buswell
- Shelley Chamberlin
- Donna Cole
- Dean Cornwell
- Julie Davis
- Carson Ellis
- William Dyas Garnett
- Pamela Green
- George Johanson
- Kevin Kadar
- Patrick Kelly
- Ken Kewley
- Una Kim
- Elizabeth Knight
- Chris Knight
- Gabriel Liston
- Joseph Mann
- Michael McGovern
- Charles McGraw
- Will Moss
- Jack Portland
- Mylan Rakich
- Mary Beth Roundbliss
- Petra Sairanen
- Marie Sivak
- Michael Southern
- Michael Stawarz
- Phyllis Trowbridge
- Morgan Walker
- Harry Widman
- Mateo Zachai
I hope the range of the exhibition, which includes depiction, invention, diagram, abstraction, materiality, and narrative, offers the viewer a sense of the diversity of perceptual and conceptual tools at the heart of what we identify as drawing. Andres